Exchange Invest Weekend 2922: Haiti Crisis Special
Haiti is a failed state with 3000 violent deaths in 2023. Competing gangs control 90% of the capital.
Exchange Invest is a unique information resource combining the day’s stories in a newsletter for investors in exchanges/financial markets infrastructure.
Exchange Invest was founded by former exchange CEO and author of the first bestselling book of fintech (“Capital Market Revolution!” FT 1999) Patrick L Young. Monday through Friday our daily paid subscriber email discusses the business of bourses of all kinds across the world.
On this day in 2009, Gov. Zhou Xiaochuan, Chinese central bank governor, called for a new global currency controlled by the International Monetary Fund, stepping up pressure ahead of a London summit of global leaders for changes to a financial system dominated by the US dollar and Western governments.
IN BIGWORLD
From Exchange Invest 2918: Tuesday, March 19th:
Trigger warning — the following may alarm from the ecological angle.
China last year accounted for no less than 96% of global coal power capacity construction with domestic coal production hitting a record of 4.66 billion metric tons, (+2.9% Y/Y). according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
IPO-VID LIVESTREAM
NEXT WEEK TUESDAY: IPO-VID Livestream 137
Season 23: Episode 05
Guest: Magnus Haglind
Tuesday, March 26th, 1700 UK, 1800 CET, 1300 EST
“Modernizing Markets: Magnus Haglind”
Magnus Haglind is SVP, Head of Marketplace Technology within the Market Platforms division of Nasdaq responsible for business management and product portfolio strategy across a broad suite of mission critical market infrastructure solutions for market operators.
Previously, Magnus’ high profile roles within the group have included Head of Global Commodities, and CEO of Nasdaq Futures.
Magnus holds a Ph.D. in Industrial Information Systems, and a M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden.
Watch the stream on:
NOW ONLINE!: IPO-VID Livestream 136
Season 23: Episode 04
Guest: Gunnar Stefansson
Tuesday, March 19th 1700 UK, 1800 CET, 1300 EST
“Smileycoin — the Happy Face of Crypto”
Gunnar Stefansson has a background in statistics. In his day job, he is a professor at the University of Iceland. His research and applications attempt to merge blockchain and cryptocurrency with educational technology and charity.
Watch the stream on:
IPO-VID LIVESTREAM PODCAST
In the IPO-VID podcast episode #134, Patrick L Young was joined by Sinara Head of Sales and Marketing, Hamish Adourian for a fabulously illuminating LiveStream.
Catch valuable insights into Sinara’s “Holistic Exchange and Operational Resilience” by tuning in!
Now available from multiple different podcast sources:
EI Website
Spotify
Google Podcasts
Apple Podcast
EI WEEKLY PODCAST
Amidst Typhoon Warnings, There’s A Sino St. Petersburg Pivot And More Funding For Abaxx,
As Johannesburg Starts To Cloud Hop,
While The Big Sale Of The Week Is Bourse Dubai Trimming Their NASDAQ Stake.
The Exchange Invest Weekly Podcast 237
VICTORY OR DEATH
20 years on from the first fintech bestseller “Capital Market Revolution!”… “Victory Or Death” is a must read book for anyone interested in the intersection of Blockchain, Cryptocurrency and FinTech as part of the whole future of finance.
*Paid link, as an Amazon Associate, Exchange Invest earns from qualifying purchases.
FINANCE BOOK OF THE WEEK
The EI weekend edition highlights interesting books pertaining to exchanges and markets, investment et al.
— Anybody can sign up for EI Weekend for free at ExchangeInvest.com.
This week’s book was written by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable is an investigation of opacity, luck, uncertainty, probability, human error, risk, and decision-making in a world we don’t understand.
Get the book here.
*Paid link, as an Amazon Associate, Exchange Invest earns from qualifying purchases.
Suggestions welcome if you would like to nominate a book for us to cover!
Our next Book of the week will be unveiled Saturday in the EI Weekend Edition.
& don’t forget if you want all the news on the bourse business sent daily to your Inbox subscribe to Exchange Invest — via Exchange Invest.com — it’s only $375 per annum to join “The Exchange of Information.”
PARISH NOTES
Next Level
Plaudits to the ICE House podcast on marking 400 episodes recently. This week they have a phenomenal guest, self-made billionaire investment titan, Ken Griffin who made a magnificent case for Miami / South Florida as a financial centre and the ongoing wonder of America as a whole:
“One of the great parts of the US capital markets is its vibrancy. And you see that in daily turnover continuing to be strong and you see it in the continued breadth of market participants in the US equity market. And we need to make sure that we’re well positioned to continuously provide competitive prices to manage risk and to allow our capital markets to function at their highest possible ability.”
…Spoiler alert, I have only given you glimpses of the show, it deserves a listen in its entirety: enjoy!
Episode 406: Ken Griffin In Boca: The Evangelist For Making The Migration To Wall Street South
Inside The ICE House
At FIA Boca, it was great to similarly hear the Exchange leaders promoting US markets…
Adena Friedman presciently pointed out how “money flows continue to be global, even if politics are becoming more local. So from our perspective, as a technology partner to global exchanges and regional exchanges, domestic exchanges, they want to get themselves to a point where they can attract as much capital as possible.”
On the question of “Geopolitics …the new world order and how that shapes decision making …” Jeff Sprecher illuminated the panel session with some fascinating insights. In his own words:
“It’s interesting because we, my company, and many of my colleagues, our peers who are here: We build global businesses. We built our technical businesses in an era where the internet could take you across borders, and the regulators around the world accommodated that. And we’re kind of deglobalizing right now.”
There was more detail in this week’s Exchange Invest Daily newsletters.
BITCARNAGE
Perhaps the fastest crypto move of the week was a real-time court T+0 judgement — faster than a Bitcoin blockchain — albeit with full judgement to come…
(Judge Dashed Bitcoin Entrepreneur’s ‘Satoshi’ Claim)
After 6 weeks in court, Mr Justice Mellor ruled that the evidence was “overwhelming” that Craig Wright was not Satoshi the Bitcoin inventor. Ahead of his ‘fairly lengthy’ ruling in his summary he noted: “I will make certain declarations which I am satisfied are useful and are necessary to do justice between the parties. First, that Dr Wright is not the author of the Bitcoin White Paper. Second, Dr Wright is not the person who adopted or operated under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto in the period 2008 to 2011. Third, Dr Wright is not the person who created the bitcoin system. And, fourth, he is not the author of the initial versions of the bitcoin software.”
Market of the week was in SBF’s sentence — a wide 6.5–50 is the current range between defence and prosecution respectively — which led to SBF claiming he was being portrayed as a “Depraved super villain.” SBF as ‘notorious DSV.’
Elsewhere, a memo emerged of a proposed SBF MAGA journey which was so outlandish it is hilarious. An exasperated Jeff John Roberts at Fortune writes “Every time you think Sam Bankman-Fried can’t possibly get more despicable, he proves you wrong. The latest example comes in the form of a secret memo he wrote to himself following the collapse of his fraudulent crypto empire.” (Sam Bankman-Fried’s Secret Tucker Carlson Plan Is Cynical But Not Surprising — Yahoo Finance / Fortune).
Not only was SBF about to dump his leftie leanings of “effective altruism” and go full MAGA via Tucker Carlson. Gosh, maybe he could have done a threeway interview with Vladimir Putin come to think of it?
Meanwhile in what may be the greatest moment in crypto philanthropy — or just another day where a crypto bro tries to gamify the justice system — CZ has announced outline information on his next big project…weeks before his sentencing hearing. Embattled Binance Founder Changpeng Zhao Launches ‘Giggle Academy’ (Decrypt). Free basic education for all from Grade 1–12 (-ish) he claims.
While busy gamifying education, of course, CZ has not at any moment given any thought to gamifying the justice system by appearing cute and cuddly just before his sentencing hearing. At the same time, CZ (or his consulting representatives) look very slick, whereas SBF with his Tucker Carlson pivot thesis looks like, at best, a dweeb. Anyway, some may call it a “4:FUD!” others may say even a spot of education is better from CZ than none at all for the underprivileged. (Giggle Academy (Giggle Academy)).
Finally Bakkt swapped out their CEO for another board member as they desperately try to stay listed on NYSE and secure sufficient funding to survive.
If you enjoyed this excerpt you may be interested to know that you can read Bitcarnage every day in Exchange Invest.
Alternatively, if you want to follow Bitcarnage — the daily update on happenings in the world of crypto and digital assets, then you can find Bitcarnage as a standalone on Substack.
MACRO THOUGHTS
Above is a map of Haiti. Click on it and Uncle Google will show you the ‘hood. A first response of “kinda nowhere” applies until your fingers do the walking and you start scrolling out. British territory, the small but perfectly formed Turks & Caicos Islands (we’ll come back to them later) are 100 miles away. The Dominican Republic shares the island of Hispaniola but the DR has (discuss at your leisure) been building a border wall.
‘Recent’ problems date back to the Duvalier regime and more recently the 2010 Haiti earthquake which was not a successful chapter in the history of disaster relief. The 2021 earthquake was a further recent disaster following the President being assassinated leading to a national leader which sparked the gangs pushing into the power vacuum. Structurally, wooden homes had been abandoned during hurricanes and replaced with concrete which withstand hurricanes better but then create a lot more problems during earthquakes. The core problems date back to a lost century repaying French debt…a penalty imposed for being the first mover in throwing off a French regime rooted in slavery.
With 11.8 million people in Haiti increasingly desperate following some 3000 violent deaths in the nation last year alone, there is essentially anarchy on the streets with at the very least 100K fleeing Haitian shores in recent years… That has a huge impact on the neighbourhood including rather a lot of naval vessels trying to stop the refugees fleeing the nation.
The Windward Passage, separating Haiti from Cuba — formerly a major sea route — is just 50 miles away. One of these days I’ll get back to why Cuba could yet upend the entire Caribbean economy.
A few key stats demonstrate how the Dominican Republic has progressed where Haiti has regressed to a failed state in de facto civil war:
OF INTEREST
As always, a review of interesting reading to provoke thoughts and consideration… Not sure we agree with much of it….but it’s thought-provoking!
All on the theme of Haiti:
The French Indemnity
JSTOR MIT
PLY: A hideous case of politics meeting banking and predatory loans. Haiti’s 1825 indemnity was finally paid off in 1947!
Alan Whicker Meets Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier (1969) Whicker’s World
Archive_Archive Youtube
PLY: From the golden age of globalising TV where the magnificent Alan Whicker was a leading figure bringing the world to British TV screens alongside similar figures in the US and elsewhere. While Papa Doc was further destroying the hideous mess of the Haitian economy, stunting growth left, right and centre, Whicker’s trademark moustache and pocket square barely quiver while facing a genocidal madman.
UK Priority Amid Haiti Violence Is Securing Turks And Caicos Islands — Cameron
Yahoo News
PLY: Two days after being nominated as PM, the President was shot…The then unelected leader Ariel remained in office until earlier this month despite having previously promised to resign albeit anarchy precluded a planned election. He was de facto deposed through anarchy. Recently the Turks & Caicos Islands refused to let Ariel Henry enter TCI fearing local destabilization where there may be more than 10,000 Haitians in a population of less than 50,000 residents.
NB There were 731,000 Haitians in the US in 2022.
Why Haiti’s President Was Assassinated
The Spectator
PLY: The arrest of the President’s wife and many others…then happened to lead to the prison gates being prised open and most fugitives escaping… Back to the history of foreign aid and it’s often a series of wretched tales:
Haiti And The Failed Promise Of US Aid
The Guardian
How The Same American Incompetence Caused Disasters In Haiti And Afghanistan
The New Republic
Subsidizing Starvation
Foreign Policy
PLY: So now we end up with 2 key groups, the Haitian elite and the gangs. I really am not sure what is the right way of anything in Haiti so the articles above and below may be inaccurate but it’s certainly feasible to conclude the situation is a mess with a massive number of contributing factors to blame:
Some Of Haiti’s Richest People Get To Live By A Whole Different Set Of Rules
Esquire
Haitians Can No Longer Hide Behind The Caste System Killing Our Country
Haitian Times
Haiti’s Elite Hold Nation’s Future In Their Hands
Los Angeles Times
PLY: Not fun fact, 47% of Haitians had access to electricity by 2021, up 13% since the turn of the 21st century. Even then most folks with access to electricity have little or no hope of a full day without supply interruptions.
Who Are Haiti’s Gangs And What Do They Want? All You Need To Know
Al Jazeera
In Haiti, The Difficult Relationship Of Gangs And Business
AP News
PLY: The latter article from AP news is surreal. Now, bear in mind the topographical issues including vast soil erosion in Haiti as from 1923–2023 alone, Haitian forest cover dropped from 60% to 12% of the nation. (Haiti’s population density is 34th in the world equivalent to the Netherlands, DR is 66th close to Germany’s population density). Whereas Haiti has 12% forest coverage, DR has 44% of its landmass covered by forests. That has a knock on effect as forestry can give protective coverage against hurricanes.
…and apologies this is such a long issue today but it’s a very important topic. A chasm is opening on the island of Hispaniola with the DR en route to become a rich nation and Haiti a violent failed state poorer than North Korea, barely an hour’s flight from Florida…
LAST WORD
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The future continues in the water cooler of the bourse business…
